Gray Wolves in the Northern Rockies

In the 1920s, government policy allowed the extermination of Yellowstone’s gray wolf—the apex predator—triggering an ecosystem collapse known as trophic cascade. In 1995—through use of the Endangered Species Act—the conservation community reintroduced the gray wolf to restore balance. The impact is dramatic.

Explore the history of the northern Rocky gray wolves, beginning in the 1930s when their numbers were decimated after years of persecution, through their successful reintroduction in the 1990s, to current day's first legal wolf hunts in the northern Rockies in nearly a century.

Last year in Rhode Island, then-12-year-old Alyssa Grayson approached Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell at an event and boldly handed her a letter asking her to reconsider plans to delist wolves from the Endangered Species Act.

The Crown of the Continent ecosystem serves as a critical refuge for grizzly bears, wolverines, and more. Conservationist Gene Sentz shares his photos of the ten-million acre expanse of land whose untouched wilderness harkens back to the days of Lewis & Clark.